Key Takeaways
- Identifying your higher power in the 12 Steps is subjective. You can make it what you want it to be, whether that’s a religious God, a loved one, the universe, or personal values.
- Surrender in recovery is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of courage and strength that helps you become a stronger person.
- Embracing Step 3 of the 12 Steps and surrendering to your higher power leads to freedom, self-awareness, and spiritual strength along your recovery journey.
- Discovery Place offers a 12 Step spiritual retreat program in Tennessee for men to overcome their addictions and achieve lasting sobriety.
Whether you’re in early recovery or contemplating treatment for your drug or alcohol addiction, there comes a point along the journey when you have to deal with the spiritual aspects of your recovery. Spirituality and your higher power play an important role in the 12 Steps, after all, especially in Step 3 at AA meetings, NA meetings, and so on.
Facing the 12 steps and your higher power may sound scary. Or puzzling. Or drum up past religious trauma. Maybe the idea of spiritual surrender in recovery feels weak or unmanly. But understanding Step 3 and following through on it is often a real turning point in achieving sobriety. And it’s something anyone can do, no matter where you’re at with your spirituality.
A Quick Overview of the 12 Steps
Before diving into Step 3, it’s important to have a general understanding of the 12 Steps program, which is one of the most widely practiced recovery approaches around the world. In fact, we embrace the 12 Steps here at Discovery Place. Originally created by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) nearly 100 years ago, the 12 Steps provide a useful roadmap for those in recovery to follow along their journey to sobriety.
Often, these 12 Steps are pursued in community alongside others in peer support groups. The steps range from being honest about your struggles and finding purpose in your higher power to accepting your past mistakes and seeking forgiveness from those you’ve hurt. For the purposes of this article, here are the first three of the 12 Steps, according to AA:
- Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives became unmanageable.
- Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
It is in approaching Step 3 that many men get held up on their recovery progress. But it doesn’t have to be this way. So how can you navigate it well along your sobriety journey today?
Your Higher Power and the 12 Steps: What Does It Mean?
What comes to mind when you see the words “higher power”? They can come across a bit vague and mysterious. For some, they may see this as the religion they grew up with. Perhaps it’s God or Jesus to others, especially here in the US. Those who aren’t religious at all may find a higher power in the 12 Steps off-putting. Some may think involving a higher power is a tough hurdle to overcome due to past religious hurt.
What does a higher power mean in the 12 Steps, exactly? What are you surrendering to in AA’s Step 3? The real answer is broad, and that’s by design. According to Evaluation & the Health Professions, the concept of a higher power could encompass any entity that engenders a spiritual tone. This may be a loving God or other supernatural force, one that operates as a daily presence in your life.
Ultimately, determining a higher power in recovery is subjective; it’s up to you. That means your higher power may look wholly different from the next guy’s. And that’s OK. There’s not a rigid box that your higher power needs to fit inside. Examples of higher powers involved in the 12 Steps may include:
- God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc.
- Inner strength
- Someone you love
- The universe
- Nature
- Morals, principles, or values
Anything that has power greater than you can be your higher power. And that higher power will call you to a bigger purpose — something outside yourself — that can help you stay the course in recovery when you face challenges ahead.
Looking at Step 3 of AA More Closely
According to 12Steppers.org, Step 3, or “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him,” is a massive one that completes the early stages of the 12 Steps. It’s a very significant moment along your recovery. But what’s going on in Step 3, and how is it carried out in practice?
As you’ve likely tried to quit addiction many times previously on your own and failed, Step 3 is all about letting go of your control over the situation. In turn, you give that control over to your higher power. It’s an act of surrender.
Understanding Step 3 means you’ve realized that you need outside help to overcome your addiction. You can’t achieve long-term sobriety through your power alone. This realization itself is humbling in a healthy way, setting the stage for you to complete the next steps more sober-minded. Completion of Step 3 also invites spirituality and all of its components into your recovery journey.
Is Surrender in Recovery a Sign of Weakness?
Tough guy, right? Like many men, you may be reading about surrendering to a higher power and balk at the notion. You’re a man. You can handle it all yourself, right?
As we live in a society that values independence and being in control, surrendering to something or someone else is hard to swallow. The image of the lone ranger, a hero who can do it all and doesn’t need anyone else’s help, is still held in high regard today in the US. We see it reinforced in the entertainment we consume time and time again.
Consequently, the idea of surrender in recovery is often viewed as a sign of weakness. Many men don’t want to surrender and would rather be in charge of their destiny. This easily collides with other entrenched societal stigmas about addiction and seeking help for it. In the end, these stigmas keep many men from getting the addiction treatment they need, and their problems only worsen.
But here’s the deal. Surrender in recovery does not mean you’re weak. It actually means you’re courageous. Letting go and realizing you need help takes guts. A lot of guys can’t do that. Surrendering to your higher power requires strength and fortitude. And in the end, your surrender equips you to become an even stronger man, too.
Understanding Step 3: What Happens When You Surrender
If Step 3 is so significant to your recovery, what should you expect as a result of taking that step? You’ve chosen to surrender control and trust in something greater than yourself. How does this help you? Here are a few beneficial outcomes of embracing Step 3:
- Freedom: Putting the weight of recovery all on your shoulders is a major burden. No doubt it’s made you weary. Maybe you feel desperate or trapped. Surrender means you don’t have to carry your struggles all on your own anymore. Entrusting your recovery to a higher power leads to real freedom. You can finally take a deep breath and move forward.
- Healthy self-awareness: By practicing surrender in recovery, you become more aware of your limitations. It’s humbling, but it helps you to understand how outside forces affect you. And eventually, you realize the things you can control and the things you can’t. This equips you with wisdom needed to continue on with the next steps of your recovery.
- Spiritual strength: According to the American Psychological Association, spirituality can provide additional strength to the treatment journey. Entrusting your recovery to a higher power gives you renewed hope and motivation to get healthy. And it also can offer extra support when difficulties or setbacks arise.
Pursue Men’s Rehab in Tennessee at Discovery Place
It’s clear that spiritual faith and addiction recovery are interconnected. As you start or continue your journey toward healing, we can help at Discovery Place in Burns, Tennessee. As a 12 Step spiritual retreat program specifically for men with addictions, we provide a faith-inclusive, community-centered path to long-term sobriety. If you’re ready to overcome your struggles and pursue a life of meaning and purpose, contact our team today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a non-religious person utilize spirituality in recovery?
Yes! Pursuing Step 3 and incorporating spirituality into recovery doesn’t always mean relying on a supernatural being or organized religion. Your higher power can be anything that invites you into a purpose that’s bigger than yourself. By adhering to that higher purpose, non-religious spirituality can still benefit your recovery journey.
What if my spirituality is tied to past religious trauma?
Most addictions are rooted in past trauma. And for some, that trauma comes from religious experiences. At Discovery Place, Phase 2 of our program focuses on addressing any trauma that’s driving your addiction. Our Recovery Guides can help you heal from your trauma so that spirituality can finally be a source of strength and hope for your long-term sobriety.
